Magic Mushroom Health Benefits. Psilocybin, a chemical found in magic mushrooms, has long been used for medicinal purposes by ancient societies. Despite legal barriers, scientists are already investigating it to treat diseases like depression and anxiety.
Psilocybin, the compound found in magic mushrooms that causes hallucinogenic effects, has powerful properties that ancient cultures used as a medicinal remedy and that scientists are now testing to treat depression. Migraines and anxiety caused by cancer, as well as addiction to drugs such as alcohol or cocaine.
However, even in a therapeutic environment. Exploring magic mushrooms nowadays has considerable legal difficulties, and the few researchers who dare to do so must embark on a lengthy and costly trip.
A clinical experiment using psilocybin on 12 individuals with depression only began a few months ago at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. “Although they had the money from the start to carry out the investigation. They had to wait three years to obtain the relevant authorizations and for the extract from the only laboratory in the world authorized to distribute it legally,” explains David Nutt, head of Imperial College’s Neuropsychopharmacology unit.
Psilocybin, when taken in a controlled context, in a clinical setting, and at the appropriate dosages. Can “reconfigure” the brains of people suffering from depression and break the cycle of negative thinking that feeds back into the disease, according to Nutt.
In a previous study, Nutt and Robin Carhart-Harris. A researcher at the same facility, utilized MRI to observe what changes occurred in the brain during a psychedelic encounter. They discovered that psilocybin reduces activity in one region. The medial prefrontal cortex, which is often hyperactive in persons suffering from depression.
It also “acts in the creation of serotonin — a neurotransmitter that persons with depression create to a reduced level,” according to Mag Farré, head of the Clinical Pharmacology Service at Germans Trias I Pujol Hospital in Badalona, Spain.
“It considered that it may have therapeutic promise at modest dosages,” he says. This natural hallucinogen, on the other hand, has an evocative potential that “would also allow us to regain memories to work on them,” Farré says.
God In A Pill
In the United States, a John Hopkins University study group has been investigating its usefulness in helping terminally sick cancer patients cope with the unavoidable road to death in the best way possible. The mystical experience that the physicians generated with the administration of psilocybin allowed the subjects in this last research to transform their experience.
They were able to decrease the suffering, resulting in a more satisfying denouement. Psilocybin has even been termed “God in a pill” by some. Similarly, another New York University group is set to begin a third round of testing with a significant number of terminally sick cancer patients. The doctors direct the patient during the administration and duration of the effect as if they were masters of ceremonies. His vision shifted since waking up, and his suffering has been modified. Few people experience the most severe of the side effects: the agony of a terrible trip.
Medicine Of The Past
The use of psilocybin for therapeutic purposes is not new. Traditional medicine has employed them to heal in various cultures. According to a study conducted by Juan Andrés Oria de Rueda, professor of mycology at the University of Valladolid, who collected testimonies from elderly women who previously worked as healers in Extremadura, vila, and Zamora, from the Aztec civilization, through the popular Mara Sabina in Mexico, to healers from the same Iberian Peninsula just 20 years ago.
“This type of mushroom has used specifically for headaches; it is a very common autochthonous species in Spain, such as Psilocybe semilanceata, which they called Fungueiru or Ta Juana Mushroom, and which are very common in areas with grasslands because they grow primarily thanks to cattle excrement,” Oria de Rueda explained. “Its interest in treating cluster migraines, which may so severe that they might lead to suicide, has been demonstrated,” Oria says.
Another example is fly agaric, which includes additional hallucinogenic chemicals including muscimol and ibotenic acid. “It is the most well-known, but it has additional consequences,” Oria explains.
Opponents Of The Ban
Psychedelic chemicals, including LSD and psilocybin, utilized in clinical psychiatric research until 1971. When they gradually prohibited across the world. According to James Rucker, a specialist at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry.
Psilocybin has the ability to alter the brains of persons suffering from depression and to break the negative thinking cycle. This British psychiatrist is adamant about the need for more research facilities with these substances. To the point where he has made a point of publishing an article in the prestigious scientific journal British Medical Journal this year. In which he calls for the requalification of these substances for scientific use.
It’s not the only one. David Nutt, who endured a long bureaucratic path to conduct his clinical studies for depression. Released another paper of condemnation in PLOS Biology this year. It has been extremely difficult for him to secure the appropriate licenses from the European Union and the British government, and he also condemns the regulation of the sale and purchase of psilocybin by the single laboratory that makes it.
In addition to the legal obstacles and the difficulties for ethical committees to authorize it. There is an economic stumbling block in the case of psilocybin, argues Rucker. “Due to UN regulations, there only one manufacturer in the world that makes psilocybin of adequate quality to utilized in this research. At a prohibitive price of more than 130,000 euros per gram, which delivers 50 doses,” explains Rucker.
Furthermore, the government of the United Kingdom requires recognized research groups to pay a licensing fee for this activity that exceeds 6,000 euros. Furthermore, the permission will take at least a year to come.
Myths That Are Untrue
According to the psychiatrist at King’s College. Authorities at the time created erroneous misconceptions about psychotropics, such as that they incited suicide. There is no danger of suicide or self-harm. According to a meta-analysis of scientific research conducted before the ban of these drugs and utilizing regulated dosages. It is not addictive, unlike other medications.
Some interpret the prohibition as a direct attempt to demolish the counterculture of the time. Albert Hoffman, a scientist. Was the first to synthesis a hallucinogen, LSD, in a laboratory in 1947, then psilocybin 11 years later, in 1958. However, it was an article published in Life magazine a year earlier that made magic mushrooms famous. In which Robert Wasson, an independent banker, and ethnomycologist, described the psychedelic experiences of a trip to the mountains.
Psilocybin then exited the therapeutic sector, and other movements began to experiment with psychedelic chemicals, including mushrooms. On the same day that John F. Kennedy elected President of the United States. Jack Kerouac sampled laboratory psilocybin. As detailed in a letter to Timothy Leary. A psychologist who was at the time committed to substantial study with psychoactive chemicals. The hippie movement welcomed the psychedelic arsenal as well.
In addition to psilocybin, scientists want to be able to study other hallucinogens. LSD looks to be beneficial in treating anxiety and migraines, and ecstasy may be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. if you want to get more information, please visit the website mungus.com